Fiction: Legal Theft Project– Rats (294 words)

25Oct

“Well, this is our life now.” Elizabeth said simply, looking across the table at Sarah. They were both standing up on dining chairs around their kitchen table. They had both leapt up on these chairs when they saw a rat run from under the fridge to under the kitchen island. They had been waiting for the better part of an hour for the rat to come back out or something—but so far nothing.

“Hmm,” Sarah wasn’t paying attention to Elizabeth at all. She was crouching down to see if she could somehow manage to see under the island without actually getting off the chair. “I think I am going to risk it.” She turned up to look at Elizabeth, “It must have run away from the other side, or tunneled down through the ground, or something… Someone has to get to the phone if we want to call the exterminator.”

Elizabeth raised her hand to her brow in a salute and started humming Taps. “You will be missed.”

“Oh, don’t start,” Sarah groaned, Elizabeth’s exaggerations giving Sarah the extra courage she needed to take the first step down off the chair.

Her toe had no sooner touched the ground than the rat came running out from the island and made a break for the kitchen table.

With an almost unhuman squeal from both girls, they leapt onto the kitchen table, clinging to each other, knocking into the hanging light and suddenly hoping the table would be able to support their combined weight. After a beat, they realized the table wasn’t going to collapse under their weight—they relaxed their grips on each other and gave the other sheepish looks.

“Welp,” Sarah sighed, reaching up to steady the lamp, “This is our life now.”